Does anyone know of a reputable company who can rebuild the main pump on a 307c Cat? I'm replacing the swing bearing and upon removal of the swivel manifold I noticed some foreign objects in the bucket I was draining the lines in to. I'm not a hydraulic expert, but I'm only assuming the debris is from the main pump. The closer the shop is to Louisiana... the better. Serial number BCM00190
Would you like to post photos of the debris you found.? It could have come from the travel motors if you found it in the swivel.
Thank you! I will post them as soon as I can find something to strain the fluid with.
I'd be doing some more investigating before throwing a pump at it if it were me.
So my filtering was poor and there were some really small/fines that I couldn’t not pull out of the cloth. However… what is pictured is the chrome plating(I assume) that I pulled from it.
Checking the oil level in the planetary hubs may also be an indicator of hydraulic motor failure. If a bearing in the motor has failed it will damage the seal and fill the hub with hydraulic oil.
That's a big assumption on the basis of one piece of swarf. I'd be wanting far more evidence than that to warrant pulling an implement pump. Can you get some better photos of the piece.? When I try to enlarge it the photo goes out of focus. Try pulling the main (return line) filter for the implement hydraulic system, cut it open, and inspect the filter media. See this VIDEO for the procedure. Yes I know it's an engine oil filter in the video but the principle is the same.
Yep, assumptions get expensive real quick.
Another question. Exactly where in the swivel did you find that piece of swarf.?
It is, but I'm also looking for worst case scenario so I can estimate what repair costs maybe... and so I can predict if my wife will kill me or not. haha New pump is $7k - and I will exercise all options before spending any money... trust me. This is a personal machine. Thank you for the link. I will check it out. Yes, they can. It dropped out of the swivel or hydraulic lines when I was prepping to pull the swivel up. The lines I'm referring too are on the bottom of the swivel. Top lines were left connected.
So if the upper (top) lines were left attached and you found that in the bottom then IMHO there is a much bigger likelihood that it came from a travel motor rather than the implement pump. The chance of it limbo-dancing through the swivel from above is pretty remote. You could reduce the search area by half if you could remember exactly which hose it came out of which would lead you to the motor you should be looking at. Still waiting for good quality photos of the piece of debris to maybe identify it better When are you planning on cutting the return filter for a look.?
Sorry for the delays everyone. I’ve only been by the machine twice since my last post. I did get a new hydraulic filter installed and the old one removed. It appears that the filter had some age to it. I did cut the filter, squeeze, and inspect it and there was minimal debris. I was extremely happy to see the results. I kept the rest of the filter for more inspections later if necessary. I also removed and cleared the return screen and it was also clean and clear of any metal debris. The last thing I did was check the fluid in each drive motor and I found zero debris of any sorts. I’ve attached photos of the filter sample.
Did you take a better photo of the piece of swarf yet.?
@Nige These were the best I could get.
Thank you. My suspicion is it came from a drive motor, the question which one.? And that depends on your memory to recall exactly which hose you found it in. The filter cut is a bit worrying despite your protestations to the contrary. There are a lot more particles in the pleats of the media than I would be comfortable with, despite the fact they are not large. If there were a dozen or so in total I would not be worried, but there appears to be far more than that. Have you tried waving a magnet over the media to see what jumps up.?
No sir. I have not waved a magnet. I can see if I can find my big magnet and try that this evening. Back history with the machine. I bought it just over a year or so ago. I put about 60 hours on it since I’ve had it. The main Hydraulic filter was the last filter on my list to change. Next on my to do list is to change the swing drive oil. I can try to cut more of the filter open if necessary? Also, when I got the machine from the previous owner he gave me two final drives, two sprockets, and a main boom and dipper. If possible, I could inspect the spare drives and swap them out with what’s in the machine?
If you could find information from the previous owner regarding when the filter was last changed that might be useful. You cut down the work required by 50% if you could figure out which of the installed motors that lump of swarf came from.
I will be doing 100% of the work. I did not watch the hoses drain. When I finished prepping to pull the swivel manifold is when I slid the bucket out from under the machine then looked in the bucket that afternoon. The swivel is brand new from cat. Maybe 1 hour of run time. I passed the only magnet I had on had over the filter. Nothing happened. I can get a rare earth magnet from work and try that next week.
Can you flatten it out some and scrape the particles off the filter media somehow.? Those particles could be nothing more than “dirt” of some sort. Did you disassemble the old swivel.? Is there any chance that piece of metal came from inside it.?
Yea sir. I did dissemble the old swivel as I had intentions of resealing it but I found some pitting on the surfaces so opted to buy new but there was no flaking of any chrome or surfaces that resembled any sort of flaking. Yes sir. I can absolutely flatten the sample piece out and scrap it. I will do that tomorrow.
Well I scraped and brushed the sample. Seems like small stuff that came out may not be very fresh in terms of recent failure? However the filter it self had some extremely small and I mean extremely small particles in it that would not come out. I had to let the camera go out of focus for them to be even viewable in the photo. 1/8” drill bit for reference
A lot depends on how long ago the filter was last changed and how many hours the machine operated since then. So none of the particles in the above photos are metallic.?
They ones next to the drill bit are, I used a magnet on the bottom side of the plastic pan to accumulate them in one area. They just seem old to me. I will try to reach out to the previous owner but not sure if he’s trustworthy. I’d like to inspect the two spare drive motor I have to see if they are viable spares in the event I need them. I would really like to get this machine back to my standards of care. I mean… I cover it with a tarp when I’m done using it. No sense in the South Louisiana sun tearing it up anymore. My next venture with it is to try and figure out why kind of Aux hydraulic set up this thing has. It’s definitely not factory. Thanks for you knowledge and help @Nige